Car doors & bike riders

Find out about the risks and consequences associated with car doors and bike riders.

Car door statistics

One of the biggest risks to bike riders is car doors being opened into their path. The bike rider may swerve out further into the road or collide with the car door, often with serious consequences.

Between July 2011 and June 2016, there were 771 car doorings involving bike riders. Of these two were fatalities and 177 were serious injuries.

The proportion of car dooring crashes involving bike riders is much higher in the Melbourne CBD and surrounds.

The regulation and fine

Rule 269(3) of the Victorian Road Safety Road Rules 2017 states it is an offence to cause a hazard to a person or a vehicle by opening a car door, leaving a door of a vehicle open, or getting off, or out of, a vehicle.

Please note that this offence covers a range of situations when people are getting in or out of vehicles - for example opening a car door into the path of a bike rider, dismounting a motorcycle, or stepping out of a bus.

In August 2012 the Victorian Government introduced tougher fines and penalties for this rule.

Advice for drivers

Bike riders are legitimate road users, and are therefore entitled to use the road just the same as any other road user. Car drivers and bike riders should share the road safely and look out for each other.

Get into the habit of always using your mirrors and doing a head check before opening your car door (one way to do this is to open the car door with your left hand)

Bike riders can travel quickly and may be much closer than you think

When getting into your car, face the passing traffic so you can see bike riders (and other road users) travelling towards you. Do not open your car door until they have passed.

Bike riders can ride between parked cars and the lane of traffic so, as a passenger, do not get out of a stationary car when in moving traffic.